Sharing music with students is the tonic that keeps Andy Mackie alive.

Andy Mackie had 10 heart operations and thought he was going to die.

Before he did, he vowed, he would teach the kids in a Quilicene classroom how to play the harmonica.

“I started with 50 kids, and they asked me to come back and do the whole school,” said Mackie. “I’ve taught 6,000 kids since then. I quit taking my medicines and spent my money on harmonicas instead.

“I have been fine ever since.”

The Scotland-born Mackie, 67, is now sharing his musical talents in the Bainbridge Island schools.

This past week, he began teaching the third-graders in Richard Pearsall’s class at Wilkes Elementary how to play a three-stringed “strum stick” that the class had a hand in crafting.

Within an hour, many of the students had mastered “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Go Tell Aunt Rhody,” and the room filled with a pleasant cacophony of sound and happy students.

“It’s about giving the gift of music away,” said Mackie, a slight man in western shirt and jeans, a harmonica poking out of his breast pocket. “Whenever a child makes a sound, he or she is giving a gift away.”

The “strum stick” project got underway earlier this year, when students in Bainbridge High School’s construction class crafted the body of the instruments using Mackie’s design and blueprint.

The project was overseen by technology teacher Ladd Schmitt, with a grant from the Bainbridge Education Support Team.

Once the high school students had completed their woodwork, the instruments went to Mr. Pearsall’s class for detailing, then back to the high school for the final finish.

“The children glued the tops on the instruments, sanded them down and added the strings and the frets,” Pearsall said. “Now the strum sticks will stay at Wilkes, and this class will teach the younger students to play.”

This is part of Mackie’s philosophy of passing it on.

“I am just sharing my God-given gifts,” he said. “Now my goal is to find someone on Bainbridge Island who can continue to teach these kids. When people see what’s happening in these classrooms, they seem to come out of the woodwork to help.”

In Jefferson County, 150 kids are now playing violins in public schools, and 54 have received college scholarships, thanks to the Andy Mackie Foundation, at www.andymackie.org.

The same thing could occur on the island, he said, if there’s a will.

“If someone will take the time to teach these students, I’m sure we could come up with some violins lying around somewhere, collecting dust,” he said in his lilting brogue.

Mackie, a resident of Quilicene, went to school in a one-room schoolhouse in Scotland, where the teacher kept a pile of instruments in the corner.

When he was a good student, he got to take an instrument out to play. He’d like to see a similar arrangement in the public schools here.

“In Scotland,” he said, “everybody plays music. You bring out the instruments and sing.”

And that’s just what the third-graders did this week.

“I’ve been playing the guitar a long time, but this was the first time I got to build one,” said David Wolfson, age 8, deftly plucking the strings of his instrument. “It was a lot of fun.”

Mareval Ortiz found it difficult to play the instrument at first, but then she got the hang of it.

“I was really glad to learn the songs,” she said. “Now I’ll try to play my dad’s guitar.”

Mackie told the students he wants to come back in April, to teach them to play the harmonica. And then he gave the children an irresistible offer:

“I need 2,500 children to be in the world’s largest harmonica band,” he said. “We’ll be meeting May 29th under the Space Needle, at the Folk Life Festival.”

Was there any interest?

Nearly every hand shot in the air, waving. The children wanted to know how much a harmonica would cost, and where to buy one.

His goal is to have the children listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We’re going to break the world record,” he told the class confidently. “And you’re all welcome to join in.”